Japanese Musicians Defy Sony by Joining iTunes 320
Homework Help writes "Japanese musicians under contract by Sony are defying their contracts by using Apple's iTunes service to deliver songs. Rock Musician Hotoharu Sano points out: 'It is an individual's freedom where that person chooses to listen to music. I want to deliver my music wherever my listeners are.' Sony Music Entertainment and Apple are still locked in talks and no agreement has been reached so far. Apple's offering of its iTunes service at lower cost in Japan is greatly attributed to their success." From the article: " Before iTunes' arrival, Japan's top music download service, which is backed by Sony and includes Sony recording artists, averaged about 450,000 downloads a month. By offering its service for lower prices, Apple is undercutting such online music services. Japanese are accustomed to paying twice as much as Apple is charging in Japan, which are still higher than the 99 cents charged in the U.S."
Re:Contract (Score:5, Interesting)
Good for them! But... (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, doing so in violation of their contract could put them in a sticky situation. I wonder what the contract actually says.
I tunes japan (Score:1, Interesting)
Perhaps there is a market for exporting ipods preloaded with music legally download in a lower cost locale.
Just wait until it catches on (Score:5, Interesting)
Give it a month or so and they will probably be going through 450,000 songs a day. I'm guessing that the reduced price has more to do with it than the Apple Brand. It looks like Apple is going to sell a lot of iPods to Japanese consumers.
I wonder if these latest developments will be enough to bring Sony around to reaching an agreement with Apple.
Re:Artist's Rights (Score:2, Interesting)
I wonder if any of them tried resolving this legally/civily/maturely before blowing up? Would be very nice to know what kind of dialog went on between the band and the label before they jumped off the cliff (if any). Did Sony know the band was concerned about this, or is this whole affair gonna look like some 1960's hippie revolt?
Re:Artist's Rights (Score:3, Interesting)
As the industry stands, there is no such 'right' to go with any ol' online distributor that you please and otherwise do anything you want. As it has already been pointed out enough to wear out the pointer: that's called Breach of Contract. You can, and most likely, will be sued for it.
However, if an artist (I'll use this term quite loosely for safety precautions) finds the benefit of actions that would breach the contract to outweigh that those of their current overlords; so be it. Stick it to The Man.
On the level of Intellectual Property and distribution, though, I think it's about time that artists get a little more savvy about the contracts they sign and labels should gain some flexability in those that they offer. I'm not a business expert, but if enough artists under the Sony label wish to distribute under iTunes (because that's where the fans are), then it would be in Sony's best interest to attempt some sort of deal with Apple on sales and such. I understand that Sony may have it's own service, but if the majority of Japan is using iTunes, then Sony will only suffer if they choose to ignore it instead of cooperate with Apple, thus gaining a larger audience and more sales for both parties.
I could be wrong (I'm not an expert on this), but it's an idea that I think record labels would be wise to consider.
Which artists are breaching their contracts? (Score:2, Interesting)
Take my money, please! (Score:3, Interesting)
It's actually easier for us to buy a CD from Japan and get it shipped to us, than try and send money to her Japanese bank account, etc.
You can buy a money card from http://amazon.co.jp/ [amazon.co.jp] (it's on the front page) ONLY IF you are in Japan. They think of everything...
I suppose eventually some stores are going to set up so you can purchase iTunes money cards overseas, but until then, iTunes Japan can kiss my ass.
Re:I tunes japan - music from America (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree. If it is legal for a citizen of Japan to fly to America, buy a CD at American prices that is also available in Japan, and fly back with it to play at home, then they darn well ought to be able to buy that same track off of the American iTunes site at the American price.
In a truly honest world this would already be the case.
Let Sony hurt over this (Score:5, Interesting)
Therefore, anything that weakens them is not a bad thing for the world at large.
Re:I kind of have to say (Score:4, Interesting)
Rubbish. I personally know a number of people who make a very decent living without going near the majors. For some very high profile examples (these are not the ones I know personally, fyi) take a look at people like Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Buuren and DJ Tiesto. All earn (I would guess) in the high 6 to low 7 figure range (USD) and all own their own indy labels which publish their own and other artist's music. It's true that much of their personal income will be from live appearances, but the guys I know (signed to similar european indy labels) make all their money from sales & licensing. None of this music is available on iTunes, but a lot of it IS available on sites like beatport.com, which, amazingly enough, offer 320kbps MP3 downloads. These are big, multi-million dollar labels, who have realised that DRM is not the way forward. I wish there were examples of this kind of vision in other parts of the music business.
Oh... I also forgot... (Score:3, Interesting)
Any parties she throws, her mortgage, car payments, phone bills, shopping for $5000 purses, trips to Ibiza... whatever's remaining, if anything, from the advance... is pretty much her earnings for the time being.
Then, on top of it all, let's not forget the income taxes on the royalties. Of course, since a recording artist is an independent contractor and not an employee of the record label, they (or rather the accountant... yet another expenditure) are responsible for setting aside the money to pay for income taxes, insurance, etc.
Re:I kind of have to say (Score:3, Interesting)
Just a quick FYI, Paul van Dyk uses my friends [mp3-howto.com] from BMG to publish, for example Nothing But You [discogs.com] has them listed as the publisher and he is under license to Universal Music. Seen him play live loads of times, stopped buying his records in 2001.
But to echo mcc's comment it looks like these artists are caught in the crossfire over hardware music players (between Apple and Sony).
From TFA:
The two companies have emerged as major rivals in the portable music player business. Apple's iPod music player, which stores music on a hard drive, has hurt Sony, which its own Network Walkman, some of which have hard drives.
So, you as an artist put your guts into producing the best music you can, your fanbase loves you and looks forward to your next release..... And your release is put on ice over politics between diferent divisions of the major you signed to.
Fuck that!
The artists have been screwed, and so have the fans.
If the labels get all pissy and whine over contracts then they should be countersued for restraint of trade.
Re:Take my money, please! (Score:3, Interesting)
In iTunes, go to Music Store, on the front page, (top-ish left) there is an America flag and a "Choose Store ->" link... Clicking that will let you switch to another countries store, such as Japan's...
You can then do searches or choose Genre -> J-Pop and buy music for 200 yen (which is deducted from your credit card in USD after being converted.
Maybe you have done this and the selection is limited, but as far as I know, anything you can get while in Japan is available to you from the US (or wherever) via the Choose Store page. Hope this solves all your problems and cures world hunger.